Movie Review: Fury at Gunsight Pass (1956)

A review of the black-and-white western starring Neville Brand and David Brian.

Synopsis: A well-planned bank robbery goes awry and, during the course of a shootout with the locals, the $35,000 in stolen cash goes missing. Things go from bad to worse when the rest of the outlaw gang rides into town to free their captured companions and demand, by gunpoint, the townspeople find the money immediately to avoid having one man killed every 30 minutes.

Who's in it?

Review

Up until very recently, I was never a huge fan of the classic western genre. However, lately (probably because I’m getting older), I’ve been watching them more often. And, because of this, I ended up watching this film, over the course of two days, before going to work in the morning. At first, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the movie. But, overall, it turned out to be a halfway decent action film.

I think the thing that I really liked about this film was the number of ways the robbery went wrong. The bandits, led by Whitey Turner (Brian), planned the robbery around the bankers’ son (Long) getting married only to find out, after arriving in town, the wedding was delayed and the bank was locked up as a result.

Then, when they are inadvertently spotted, the banker (Richards) winds up dead and, because of an incorrect assumption, is named a conspirator while the undertaker who is really helping the gang (Helton), hides the money before being struck down by a stray bullet. This leads to a variety of finger pointing about which person has the money and the fast-paced nature of all of this does keep things interesting.

One thing that does surprise me about this movie is the fact the action does seem to be almost non-stop throughout, whether it’s the gang overpowering a posse or the final fight between the townspeople and the gang while dealing with a sandstorm. The variety of twists that pop up throughout the film also keep it from becoming as predictable as I thought it would be, making it a very entertaining movie to watch.

Probably my only real complaint about this movie was the new bride, Kathy (Davis), didn’t have too much of a role in the movie, other than to worry about her new husband and tip him off about who had the money. Considering her big day was ruined by the outlaws, it would have been kind of cool to see her shoot at least one of the bad guys.